A Different Type of Cinderella Story
by mew luchia
Summary: Sakura is forced to wait on her Step-family and the prince in forced into a marriage and taking the crown he doesn't want. Now a ball is held to find a bride for him. Not only that but two Dukes and their sons have come to visit. What could go wrong?
1. The Step Family From Hell

**This is the 'Naruto' Story I was telling you I was going to write. I chose this one because hopefully this isn't going to be too long but still long at the same time. I got this idea from another 'Cinderella' based story. I hope you like it.**

**Tittle: Cherry Blossom Princess**

**Pairing: Gaara/Sakura**

**Genre: Adventure, Romance**

**Rating: T-swearing**

**Summary: Sakura's father died leaving her in the care of her loving step-mother, NOT. Her step-mother is cruel. Her and her two daughters, Ino and Karin, boss Sakura around making her do their every bidding. When the prince is in need of a bride a ball is held to find a suitor. Ever eligible female is going, except Sakura. What will she do?**

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The sun shined down of the little village warming the air on that mid spring day. People were walking though the busy streets of the village. The baker was baking, the shop owners were minding their shops and villagers were just going about their business. It was a typical normal day, and the town was peaceful and calm. Everyone was happy and nice,but just outside of the main village there was a fairly large house. It was well built and clean looking. The yard was beautiful with flowers of every kind planted and the smell of tea was in the air. Yes it was truly a perfect house, on the outside. Inside mass trouble and chaos was going on.

"YOU WORTHLESS GIRL GET DOWN HERE NOW! I NEED MY BREAKFAST!" A woman yelled from the bottom of the stairs in the main hall of the house while straightening her deep green gown. The gown was magnificent and beautiful. It had a low neck line with a white flower broach to show off her chest, no sleeves, but it puffed out at her shoulders and pearls all around lining the bottom and top of skirt part. The woman had deep black hair, which contrasted off her tan skin, in a high bun on her head pinned up with the most expensive clip money could buy. Her body held many rings, bracelets, and necklaces. Just by looking at her you could tell she was a wealthy woman but if you looked closer you could see the cold evil glint she had in her eye.

Soon after the yell you heard the fast pattering of small feet on the ground soon followed by a small fragile looking girl running down the stairs. "Yes, madam. Right a way Madam." Replied the small girl. She wore a dirt brown short sleeved dress that hit her knees with a patched up gray apron, old worn out brown flats and a dirty ribbon to tie her long messy locks of hair back from her face. She was small compared to the woman in front of her at a measly 5'1'' while the woman was a striking 5'7''. Her face was clear and pure looking but was hidden by smudges of soot and sweat from the hard work she must do each day. He eyes were a shining emerald green and always held a happy looking feel to them despite the cruelty of the older woman. Her long locks of hair were once lovely and beautiful, flowing with every movement she made but her hair was also quite different from other girl's hair. It held a strange colour to it, pink. Yes the young girl's hair was pink, but even so she was never picked on because of her natural charm and beauty. Unfortunately her hair was dirty and tangled due to her having no time at all to properly tend to it. So all in all the girl was a beauty but it was now hidden under grim, dirt, and sweat. Very unfitting for a eighteen year old girl.

"You uncaring girl. What took you so long? Don't answer I have no time for your pointless excuses. Get to the kitchen and prepare breakfast. It' already past sunrise." The woman snapped at the girl. While taking out a green feather fan to cool herself down. "Then wake up Ino and Karin and prepare them for the day. We are going to head to the village. Ino needs a new dress and Karin is getting her hair done." She ordered the girl. "And while we are gone do your chores and try to make yourself more presentable. I am expecting company later today. You may be my step-daughter but you could never be of any real importance in this world. Your useless and other than your hair you are nothing like your name. Sakura. Cherry blossoms are beautiful and graceful and lovely. You are the complete opposite. Ugly, clumsy, and horrid."

Sakura just looked at the ground holding tears in. Yes the horrible, yet beautiful woman, was her step-mother, Madame Cornelia. Her father married her after her mother died of illness. She had two daughter's equally as cruel as she was, but also and equally as beautiful. Each with their own special physical trait. Karin, with her perfect curves and long legs. Ino with her large bust. Both extremely desired woman in their village. Her step-mother was never was rude to Sakura when her father was around, but when he died of illness as well she took over and pushed her around. He father left everything to Cornelia. Her step-mother and step-sister's controlled everything.

"Well don't just stand there like an idiot, get moving!" Her Step-mother snapped

"Yes Madame." The young girl said scurrying off wiping her eyes. _There was no time for crying. I have work to do_. So went to the kitchen to put some porridge on the stove and heat some water for the tea. Afterwards running up the stairs to retrieve Ino and Karin, from their rooms.

First was Karin. She was 19 and the oldest of Sakura's step-sisters. She had long red hair which once and a while she brushed only on one side stating that it was 'her look' and no one could pull it off like she could. She wore elegant black frame glasses on her face and had a peach skin tone. She was 5'5'' and had a very small wait and always cakes her makeup on to hide her imperfections. Which she calmed she didn't have and it was just to enhance her beauty, which she would add '_Though I don't really need to. I am already beautiful_' afterwards.

Reaching the top of the stairs she went to the right where the girl's room was located. She opened the door to see Karin asleep in her bed, her glasses on her bedside. _'She looks so nice and peaceful asleep, I wish she was like that when she was awake.'_ Sakura sighed and walked in closing the door behind her not wanting to wake the girl yet. She stood tall and attempted to wake the red head. Key word, attempted "Miss. Karin, it's time to get up. Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes." No response was heard. So Sakura spoke louder, "Miss. Karin, you must get up." The red head just rolled over and mumbled. One last try was given to wake her up. The small girl filled her lungs up with air and yelled, "MISS. KARIN! IT IS TIME TO GOT OUT OF BED!"

Almost immanently the red head sprung out of bed and snapped her head at the pink haired girl next to her bed. "SHUT UP YOU STUPID GIRL! I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME! DON'T YOU KNOW I NEED MY BUEATY SLEEP! Not that I really need it. I am already beautiful as it is." She yelled at the Sakura, said girl winced at the tone and harshness in Karin's voice. Not that she wasn't used to it, but it was early in the morning and she wasn't wasn't completely awake.

"Yes I know but Madame said you wake you, breakfast is nearly done and you have an appointment at the salon today." She replied.

"Oh, yes! I almost forgot I have to see Monsieur Larice today! I'm getting a trim. My hair is far to long and I heard that a lot of the richer people preferred short hair." Karin said jumping out of bed and fluffing her long red locks. "He is only the best in all of England so naturally the best should be treated by the best. Am I right?"

"Yes, Miss. Karin absolutely right." Sakura answered barley listening while making Karin's bed. She learned to ignore Karin's consent lectures about herself, but always kept one ear listening just incase she asked her a question about herself. While she would replied usually the same every like she just did.

"Good you understand. Now when you are done go fetch my favorite day gown with shoes from my closet." Karin ordered while sitting in front of her vanity with many mirrors brushing her hair.

"Yes Miss. Karin" Sakura replied with a bow and walked into her step-sister's large closet. As she was looking though the many dress in search of Karin's favorite she was remembering what the room looked like before it was turned into Karin's bedroom. The large room was once a art studio that her father made for her mother. He mother Saki, loved art so her father turned there spare room into her own personal art studio with all thing imaginable. Paints, pencils, colours you could only dream of and most of all her mother's wonderful paintings. But that was then. Karin had threw away everything in the room and filled it with her many accessories and dresses. Sakura would watched in horror as the painting were either sold or burned. Lucky for her, her Step-mother took pity on her and let her keep one of her mother's paintings. The one she saved was a picture of her, her mother, and her father under a cherry blossom tree that was in the backyard. It was her only remembrance of what her mother and father looked like.

"SAKURA! Did you find my dress yet?!" Hollered Karin from her bed. "I would like to get dressed sometime this year please!"

Sakura quickly snapped out of her dazed state and quickly looked for the dress and shoes. Once found she dashed out and handed them to Karin. "Here you go Miss. Karin" Karin just snatched them from her grip and started dressing.

After her shoes and dress was on she turned her back to Sakura. "Well? Make yourself useful and zip me up!"

"Yes Miss. Karin." Sakura replied zipping up her step- sister's dress. Sakura hated the fact that she had to address her step-mother as Madame and her step-sisters as Miss. But her step-mother wanted her to do so because she didn't people to know she was related to _'that ugly piece of trash.'_

"Since I am getting my hair cut I have no need for my hair to be fancy, but you can tie it back with this ribbon." Karin said shoving a red silk ribbon into her hands. And be careful." Sakura took the ribbon and tied Karin's long locks of hair up in a high ponytail carefully like she instructed her to. Karin then stood up and admired herself in her full length mirror. "Don't I look stunning?"

Karin's dress was a deep red colour, like her hair, with a spaghetti straps so she could show off her shoulders to be flirtatious. The top was decorated with sparkles and pearls. It reached down to her ankles to show off her red heals. All in all she did look stunning.

"Of cores. Now if you will excuse me I must wake up Miss. Ino. Breakfast will be done shortly." Sakura said

"Yeah, Yeah. Whatever. That pig, always getting up late. Go get her before she makes me late or sleeps through the day." Karin replied still admiring herself. "Well what are you waiting for. Get out of here!" Karin said waving her hand in a pushing manor at Sakura. "Shoo, Shoo!"

Sakura quickly ran out her Karin's room and walked down the hallway to her old bedroom, now Ino's. Ino was eighteen turning nineteen in a week. She had a large bust which she loved to flaunt. Her hair was long and part of her right eye was covered. Her only physical flaw was that she was didn't have the waist her sister did. She was a little '_chunky_' as Karin would put it. So Ino would constantly try to lose weight by watching what she ate. Though she still ate like a pig when presented with large amounts of food. Another flaw was that she slept. A lot. She was always tired or over sleeping. Nothing could waker her up. It would take a lot to get her up.

Sakura walked down a long hallway to Ino's room. Once her own. Ino decided to have Sakura's old bedroom was not because it looked over the garden but because she thought it would hurt Sakura more if she used her old bedroom as hers. It did hurt but not much. Ino was furious so she tore it apart and rebuilt it her way. Destroying all traces that Sakura had ever inhabited the room. Sakura's room over looked the garden in the back which she and her mother would spend most hours of the day working on it. Today it was still beautiful because Sakura worked on it when ever she could. Too bad for Ino even with all the medicine she would take and how much she would keep her window closed she still couldn't avoid her allergies to the pollen the wind carried into her room in the spring. Karin would always say she sounded even more like a pig with her nose all stuffed up. Ino would just throw tissues at her when her sister did so.

Ino was called a pig by Karin because that's what her name mean in Japanese. Karin didn't look like it, but she loved to study different languages. Though she never admitted to liking it since she didn't want people to think she liked studying. She always said the main purpose for it was so she could insult people and they wouldn't what she said. Sakura secretly would seek into Karin's books and study one of the language she already learned so she wouldn't know Sakura borrowed it. It was quite fun to do so. she always returned them before Karin would return to her room.

Sakura finally approached a dark wood door at the end of the hall way. She knocked on the door. "Miss. Ino, time to awake the morning is nearly begging." similar to Karin's response. Nothing just the muffling noise of snores. "Sakura knocked louder. Miss. Ino you must awake for the day is begging." Only louder snored were heard. Sakura sighed, Ino was once again fast asleep. Nothing could ever waker her up. _At this rate no one will get anything done and the breakfast will over cook, unless..._ Sakura opened the door just a crack to peek inside the room. _Damn. How on earth did she get that room so messy and I just cleaned it yesterday._ Sakura though looking at the array of cloths and such on the floor.

"Ino, Karin is wearing your pearls." Sakura whispered then quickly shut the door.

"SHE'S WHAT!?" Ino sprung out of bed and ran to her jewelry box in search of her pearls. Thankfully they were there. "There here. So that means....SAKURA YOU LIEING BITCH! GET YOUR UGLY ASS HERE NOW!" Ino screeched.

Sakura slowly entered the room. "Yes Miss. Ino, You called for me?" Before she had anytime to react Sakura was smacked across her face. Hard. She fell to the ground with tears threatening to fall. Sakura was holding her now red cheek as Ino stood over her scowling.

"You stupid ugly bitch! How dare you lie to me. I should tell mother and have you go without meals!" Ino kicked Sakura to the ground. "Get up. You look pathetic." Sakura slowly stood and faced Ino, her face still red from the slap. "Never do that again or there WILL be consequences. Do you hear me?" The pink haired girl nodded. "Good, now get out of my sight!" Sakura ran out of Ino's room as fast as she could.

Sakura hated Ino with great passion. She hated both her step-sisters. Though Karin was a little nicer to Sakura and didn't cause physical pain to her body. She would hurt her with rude remarks and such. Sakura believed it was because Karin was older,thus a little more mature than Ino. Or Ino was just a spoiled, rotten, cruel brat. She was leaning more towards the second one.

Sakura raced into the kitchen just in time before the kettle over boiled and the porridge burned. She set the table while the food cooled. Shortly after her step sisters came down. Karin had added a few more pieces of jewelry to her outfit so she would seem more fancy and elegant. Ino on the other hand looked like a common street whore. She wore a no-sleeved low cut purple dress. It had a straight looking bottom and was about four inches above her ankles and she wore deep purple heals. To her face she applied heavy make-up and, in Sakura's opinion, too many pears.

"Good morning Miss. Karin. Good morning Miss. Ino" Sakura replied with a bow.

"Good morning, Sakura. " Karin replied with a sarcastic acknowledging tone. Ino just huffed and turned her nose up in the air. Karin rolled her eyes at the way her sister was acting. It reminded her of a small child. Karin walked over to the table and sat down as Sakura pushed her chair in and poured her some tea.

Ino just stood there and waited impatiently for Sakura to finish _'pampering' _her sister.Right before Sakura finished her Step-mother came in the room. She looked and Sakura with a sneer. Then Karin, she smiled slightly and then to Ino. When she saw her second daughter's appearance she was shocked, angered and about ready to bite her head off.

"Ino Vendarano!(Ven-dare-a-no) **(1) **You change your outfit at once! I will not walk around with someone who looks like she was just picked up from the street like a common whore!" Karin snickered at her sister's misfortune. She knew better than to dress like that, especially in front of mother. Karin smirked as she ate her food and Sakura started to fill the other bowls.

Sakura too was laughing, inside her head, for if she did outside, hell was to pay. In her head was where she would let out all her inner emotions hat she couldn't let out in front of her step- mother and sisters. Ino yelled and argued with her mother but in the end she lost and was forced to change into something else. Her step-mother sat down at the head of the table and started eating the food that was put out for her. After a few minutes Ino came back down in a different outfit. It was a plum purple dress that had puffed shoulder sleeves and went down to the floor. She removed some of her make up but still had the many pearls on. Her step-mother looked at Ino up and down. "Better. Now sit and eat before we leave."

Ino just grumbled at at her porridge. While the three of them at Sakura cleaned the pots and pans. About ten minutes later Karin called her in. Running in Sakura stood next to Karin. "Yes Miss. Karin, You called."

"Mother said we're leaving and she wanted me to remind you to finish all the chores and prepare dinner for eight. Mother is having some people over. Probably some people she wants to marry Ino. That fat pig will never get anyone to marry her. Right Sakura." Karin said with a evil laugh.

"Y-yes Miss. Karin whatever you say." Sakura said stifling a laugh.

"Anyway I'm off to the carriage." Karin said turning away to go out the door.

"Good-bye Miss. Karin and tell Madame that I will have all the chores done and then some and a feast will be prepared when you return." Sakura said with a fake smile and sweetness.

Karin just waved her hand behind her. "Whatever. We should be back at four." With that the door was slammed at the house was empty.

Sakura stood there and listened until the sound of the hovels were gone. Sighing Sakura looked at the mess in the kitchen. "I better get working if I want to get the chores done 'and then some' along with a 'feast' before four. Curse me and my niceness. It'll be the end out me one day." Sakura then cleared the kitchen and started working on her mountain of work not wanting to upset her step-mother for she didn't want to face the consequences.

**O.M.G.....FINALLY! This is done! This took like months to write! And today I decided to work on it! Yay me! This is like a really long chapter! anyways I hope you like it. sorry for spelling or grammar mistakes.**

Sorry to any Ino lovers out there but she just sort of fit the part as a bitchy mean step-sister. As did Karin. If any of you are wondering why I made Karin seem nicer please look at my profile for the answer. I explain A LOT there. Keep track of it because I post bulletins along with notices about my stories there. Also some funny stuff to read and pass along.

So please read and review this chapter and I will write the next one! So Read, Review, and Share!

**Author Notes:  
1: Made that name up. Sakura's Step-mother, Karin and Ino kept their last name while Sakura's in Haruno.**


	2. A Day With The Family From Hell

**This is the second chapter in my awesome story. I'm very thankful too all who read and reviewed this story. You are all super special awesome. XD (Thank you LK for the awesome abridged series of **_**'Yu-Gi-Oh'**_**.) **

**Anyways this chapter is sadly, fairly short. I've had a lot of work in school to do. As well as it being short Gaara still has not made an appearance yet. **_**-is hit with tomatoes-**_** I know but he will hopefully be soon. I haven't decided if I should briefly add him in the next or make a whole chapter dedicated to him. **

**This chapter is all about Karin, Ino and her step-mother. -**_**is hit with more tomatoes**_**- But the next chapter will revolve around Sakura and stuff. so no need to worry, or throw fruit at me. There are some reminders and IMPORTANT notes in the author notes at the end so please do read. But,enough with me yapping on about this. Lets get going on with the story. Alright?**  


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"Oh, this just the cutest dress ever! I just must have it!" Ino cried

Karin rolled her eyes as she watched her sister practically buy everything in the store. Ino was currently holding up a puke green dress with frills and puffed sleeves. It was the ugliest dress Karin had ever seen in her life. Then again Ino was picking out the dress. "Whatever, just buy it and lets leave. I'm going to be late for my appointment."

"Fine, but I doubt that you will ever make that hideous tangled mess you call hair as beautiful as mine." Ino said as she paid for the dozen of unneeded dresses.

"Hush up you girls and lets leave. It is time for Karin's appointment. " Their mother said. "Move move lets go."

"Yes Mother." The two of them said in a monotone voice as they followed their mother out of the store. Ino carried many bags filled with dresses, shoes, and jewelry. Karin held one bag with a single dress in it and one pair of shoes. Their mother heald a large number of bags that could rival Ino's.

Entering a fancy building the three of them were greeted by a brown haired girl with two buns on her head. She wore a pink ruffled shirt and black pants. "Good day, I'm Tenten. How may help you?"

"Good day Tenten. I'm here for my appointment with Monsieur Larice today. It should be under Karin Vendarano." Karin said

Tenten skimmed thru the papers looking over every name. The hair salon was the fanciest and expensive place in all of Suna. But it got that was because of the talented young man who owned it. In his short time in Suna he had become the most popular man in any business.

After a moment Tenten looked up and smiled. "Ah yes. Here you are. Monsieur Larice should be out in a minute. In the mean time let me prepare you for him." Karin nodded as Tenten lead her over to the hair washing station.

As Karin walked away her mother looked over the salon with disgust. She didn't like the man who ran the salon at all. He was, in her opinion, too different. Strange, weird, and too abnormal to be classified as a normal human. Ino as well didn't like him at all either. She agreed much with her mother, as well as for his looks. They didn't suit him. "Karin, your sister and I are going shopping. Come find us when your done." Her mother said finally fed up with standing in the place.

"I'm not a child mother. I'll be fine." Karin retorted. She hated when her mother treated her as a child. She was nineteen years old for crying out loud.

"Do not talk back too me! Remember you are MY daughter!" Her mother yelled at her with Ino snickering in the background. "Just remember what I said. Now come along Ino. Lets leave your sister to herself." And with that the two left with their noses up in the air. Karin just sighed and walked over to the hair washing station.

"Those two are still up to their antics I see." Tenten said as he soaked Karin's hair wit the water and put some shampoo in it.

"Yeah, all they do is shop and boss people around." Karin replied closing her eyes relaxing into the cool water that washed over her as the soap bubbles rinsed out of her hair. "That feels good."

"But of corse my dear! Only the best treatment for my best costumer." Exclaimed a man with a light French accent.

Tenten lifted Karin head out the water and brushed it gently to get the tangles out. Once Karin could see she opened her eyes to see a tall blue eyed blond headed man in front of her. "Why good morning Monsieur Larice. How are you today?"

"Fine fine, but cut it out with the '_Monsieur Larice_' business. It make me feel old, I'm only 24 years of age. Anyways that's my old man of a father." The blond said waving in hands in small circles. "So are we ready to start?"

"Yes, sir. She's all ready." Tenten chirped happily.

The blond grinned widely and clapped his hand together. "Perfect! Now come my dear and let me make you look fabulous!" Taking hold of Karin hand he left her to the seat in front of the mirror as Tenten went to go greet some more people."Now what is it today? The '_French Twist_' the '_Dutch Curls_'?"

Karin shook her head. "No no nothing fancy today. Just a nice clean cut to about here." Karin said holding her hand about three inches below her chin line.

"Ah, so you have heard the rumors. A lot of woman have come in to have their hair cut like that but of corse they cut almost all the way off. Me I prefer longer hair on girls. Having it so short takes their beauty away." The blond said as he set out his scissors and combs.

"Yes but all the men who like long hair are either married to their wives or are as poor as can be. As you should know us girls don't like to live the poor life. I sometimes don't understand how Sakura can do it. I expected her to beg for mercy on her knees before the first day was done. It's already been two years and still nothing."

"From what you have told me that young girl seems to have a lot of determination in her."

"Yes, but I can't help but have a feeling inside of me when I see her being pushed around by Ino and Mother. It's like a little nagging feeling. I've been pushing it away thinking it's just the heat but it just keeps coming back."

"That my dear," The blond started, " is your guilt. Deep down inside you are feeling sorry and bad for how your treating her. Everyone gets it. Your may be feeling it now because your older so you have more maturity than before."

Karin sighed and looked at the blond thru the mirror. "Yeah I guess your right."

"Also not all rich men who like long hair are married to their wives! I'm rich, love long hair, and I'm don't have a wife. It makes me hurt inside to see all these beautiful ladies wanting me to chop off their hair for the sake of riches!" He said she he did dramatic poses and sighs.

Karin laughed at the blond haired boy. "I swear your so dramatic. That another thing you have in common beside similar looks with Ino."

The blond look disgusted. "I most certainly do not look like that horrid girl." He leaned forwards with a large smirk and looked directly into Karin's eyes thru the mirror. "_She_ looks like _me_."**(1) **Standing straight he shrugged his shoulders. "Anyways you sister is boy crazy. I don't go running around trying to seduce every beautiful girl I see. Only one or two. None of them respond to it anyways."

"Thats because everyone knows you have a boyfriend. Remember? Anyways you should not do that. what if your boyfriend found out?" Karin said smirking.

"Oh let me have some fun flirting with a girl here and there. He made me sleep on the couch last night." The blond pouted.

"That's because you wouldn't stop talking about some new piece of art you saw." A deep voice said from behind him.

Whipping around the blond shrieked in happiness and hugged the man. "Mon ami Ri!your here! I thought you were out of town for the day."

The man pushed the blond off him and he landed with a '_thump_' onto the floor. "I came home a little sooner and watch it with those scissors in your hand. You almost stabbed me."

"Sorry mon ami Ri. How about be go out to lunch right after I finish Karin here."

The man shrugged and pushed a few pieces of red hair out of the way of his vision. "Sure. I'll be in my art studio. Come get me when your done and remember don't take forever, you know I hate waiting."

"Yeah yeah, but this takes time. So don't rush me." Leaning over to the red-head he placed a small kiss on his lips. "I love you."

"Love you too. I'll see you later." He said as he walked out of the salon and down the street.

"Have I ever told you that you two are the cutest couple, even if you are gay."

"I prefer the term '_romantically interested differently_'. Saying plain out gay is really blunt about it."

"Whatever you say. I still can't believe that your dating the greatest artist of our time, Akasuna Sasori. How did you do it Mons-"

The blond cut Karin off with a cough. "What did I say about that. Call me by my name. Kay?"

Karin rolled her eyes at the persistence blond. "Alright sorry. I still don't know how you snagged him, Deidara."

Deidara smiled. "Sasori and I have been friends since childhood. We were even were in the same social group, Akatsuki. Man those were good times. Now off the subject of my love life and back to your hair." Karin nodded and Deidara got to work and cutting her hair.  


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As Karin was getting her hair cut Ino and her mother were walking thru the town, noses up and gliding gracefully down the streets. By sanders would stop to stare at the two beautiful ladies. Lust filled gazes from the men and admiration as well as hateful stars from the women. The young children who saw them..........just cried.

"Mother what are we going to do. I'm tired and hungry." Ino complained.

"I'm a bit famished myself. Let's stop and rest for a while." Following her mother the two walked into a small fancy restaurant, '_Nous Seivons Tu'_. A waiter directed them to a table near the side wall. Nervously, he handed them their menus and left the two alone to figure out what to order.

"Oh the steak sounds good, but the fish may be better. Then again a salad would be best for my diet, but I always loved clams. Water is the best drink. But I always loved red wine, but white is more common, but then again....." Ino went on and on to herself about what to order. Across the table her mother twitched slightly as she tried to drain out her daughter's useless rambling. After some time the same nervous waiter came towards them.

"H-how may I-I serve y-you?" The man sputtered. He wore the common uniform: white long-sleeved collar shirt with a black vest and pants. His hair was a verydeep dark colour and long but was tied back slightly on either side of his face. If it wasn't for the fact that he wore the mens uniform he could easily be mistaken for a girl.

Folding her menu Mrs. Vendarano sat up tall and proud. "I'll just have the chefs special and some white wine."

"R-right." He sputtered and scribbled it down. "And f-for you?" He asked looking towards Ino.

Ino opened her mouth but was quickly cut off by her mother. "She'll have a simple salad, no dressing, a light soup and some water." The young man quickly wrote it down before the menus were harshly shoved into his arms. "and make it snappy. I very much hate waiting." The waiter ran off scared of the harsh woman's cruel glare. Though, right now her daughter's glare was far worse.

"Mother! Why did you order for me? I'm capable to do it on my own."

"Yes but we are here to eat lightly. Anyways you need to watch your weight. Your getting a bit chunky around the middle. And tonight we have special company coming over."

"Who is it. You never did tell me."

Mrs. Vendarano just smirked smugly. "I've arranged for two Dukes, and their sons, from Konoha to come and visit us. Both of their sons are looking for a future wife and I've suggested you. They will be in town for several days or so. By then you will have to win one of their hearts. If not you may be hopeless."

"I'm not hopeless but thats besides the point. Which Dukes are coming?"

This is where her mother chuckled and sat up proud and tall. Then she answered her daughter in a smug tone. "the Uchihas and Hyugas." A shrill squeal erupted from their small table.  


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**Sorry that this is short chapter but I did it late at night and didn't feel like continuing. I would like to thank all my reviewers. You were all so very supportive and made me want to write more. **

**I'm very sorry for the very short chapter I was sick and also a report in French to do. But I promise that the next chapter will be longer and focus around Sakura. I thought that this would be a good little humor thing to add, but the next one is going to have Sakura in it.**

**did anyone know that Deidara was the hair dresser before Sasori came in or were you all surprised? Deidara being the hairdresser was a 'on e whim' thing. So don't yell at me about his last name being Larice. I know it is weird, but I did come up with him as the hair dresser on a whim. I was too lazy to come up with an idea for a hair dresser,so yeah. Also don't harass me about forgetting his 'un/yeah' thing. I thought I'd replace that with a French accent. Also I forgot to type it but I think the accent makes up for that. I know you can't see/read the accent but as i was typing it I just hear it in my head. The hairdos were made up as well.**

**I know I added Yaoi in this but SasoDei is too cute to pass up. I know they didn't do too much and it was only light but they both will be in the story more later on. As far as the waiter at the restaurant can you guess who it is? A cookie to who ever gets it right. Actually a special congrats in my next chapter.**

As far as the Uchihas and Hyugas go the fathers, yes Hazashi is alive, are Dukes of Konoha, Sakura and everyone else live in Suna, duh. Gaara's the prince so it pretty much has to be Suna. Just for heads up there will be some slight SasuSaku and NejiSaku but the main pairing will be GaaSaku I promise but I can't directly copy '_**Cinderella**_**' or that would be bad. so I'm mixing it up a bit. **

**Just so you all know here is a list of all the pairings and info on them for this story. Just note that I may not use all of them or I may add more. I'm not sure what is going to be used but this is the main base of them so far. also note that the main pairing f the story will end up as and always will be Gaara/Sakura.  
GaaSaku: Main pairing of the whole story  
SasuSaku: slight pairing  
NejiSaku: slight pairing  
SasoDei: Yaoi and secondary pairing  
SasuIno: One-sided, only Ino  
NejiIno: One-sided, only Ino  
SasuKarin or SuiKarin :Slight, but you can vote**

Thats all I can think of for now. So vote to tell me what is better SasuKarin or SuiKarin. S please and thank you to all of you who are putting up with my lazy ass delaying. Also sorry for spelling/grammar mistakes. I suck in those fields....and I want to become a writer. I would get a beta but the thought of it makes my head hurt in confusion. So no not now. I'm just going to pay more attention in class though. Oh and the name of the restaurant should be 'We serve You' and mon ami means my friend. I'm not too good with my French.

Author Notes In Story:  
(1): For the story I used this from your story. I just thought that it was very cool and I liked it a lot. I'm sorry if your mad that I used it I just thought it would help give the readers a better hint of who the hairdresser was. If you want me to change and/or remove it I will. so full credit for that line goes to that author. I forgot her/his name at the moment but when I remember it or find the story I'll post it in a chapter to promote it.


	3. A Shock Of A Lifetime

'**_A Different Type of Cinderella Story'_- A _Naruto_ fan fiction**

**By mew luchia**

Sakura sighed as she swept the dinning room floor. It was already almost ten in the morning and Sakura had just barely finished cleaning half the house. She somehow managed to clean Ino's pig sty of a room as well as the kitchen, the other bedrooms, and the main hall. Even still she had the garden to take of, the living room, den, the laundry, and cooking to do. On top of all that Sakura had promised to do more. She was going to wash the china dishes, polish the silver, dust the rugs, and wash all the windows in the house. She was going to kill herself one day with her kindness and big mouth.

Sakura had dumped the last tray of dust into the garbage and put the broom away. With a heavy sigh Sakura walked into the kitchen. It was time to start preparing the feast. Karin had said they were having guests over. She remembered that Karin said that there was going to be eight people total coming to have dinner with them today. Just for extra precautions she made enough for eleven. After about half an hour Sakura had a roast in the stove cooking, a broth for a stew was on the cook top and was currently pealing some potatoes and chopping some vegetables for the stew. After she had them all peeled Sakura began to chop them until a knock at the door reached her ears.

"Who could that be?" Her Step-mother wasn't due back for another five hours. Placing the knife down Sakura made her way to the door. "I'm coming!" Opening the door Sakura smiled widely and threw her arms around the young man at the door. "It's great to see you Naruto! I wasn't expecting you. What are you doing here? Not that I don't like your company, but hasn't that old man been working you non stop lately?"

Naruto Uzumaki was a blond haired blue eyed teen Sakura's age. He was slightly taller than Sakura and wore brightly coloured clothing compared to Sakura's rags. His shirt was an orange colour with blue pants, knee socks and blue shoes. He also wore a black vest over it. Naruto grinned. "I was able to convince him into letting my take the afternoon off." Naruto eyed Sakura and noticed how tired and worn out she looked. "Did I come at a bad time?"

Sakura sighed but before she answered she remembered something. "I forgot about the stew!" Running into the kitchen Sakura managed to lower the temperature of the stew and stop it from over boiling. "That was a close call."

Naruto walked into the kitchen to see Sakura once again working preparing a huge meal. "Is that old hag having people over again?" A large sigh from Sakura was answer enough. "Well do you need any help?"

"Are you sure Naruto? This is your first day off in weeks and I would have thought that you would want to go be with some of your friends having fun. Not here helping my please my step-mother."

Naruto grinned widely. "You're my friend too Sakura. I don't mind helping you out." Naruto rolled up his sleeves. "So what do you want me to do boss?" Sakura smiled widely. Naruto was the greatest friend ever.

Sakura had directed Naruto to take care of the remainder of her daily chores then to dust the rugs. Naruto literally hopped off to work on the awaiting work. Taking care of the cleaning was surprisingly easy for Naruto. Despite his overly messy bedroom Naruto was always stuck cleaning his master's house and work shop. It was about one in the afternoon after Naruto had finished cleaning Sakura now had the stew ready and it was now slow cooking on the stove to prevent it from getting cold. The roast would still take a while to cook. Sakura still wasn't quite done with the cooking, but she had run low of a few certain ingredients. She would need to run to the market to buy some more. Sakura and Naruto were both currently collapsed in the kitchen both looking tired and worn out.

"Thanks' Naruto. If you didn't come to help don't know if I could ever get all this work done." Sakura said between a few shallow breaths.

"No problem. We don't have any more work to do. Do we?" Naruto asked.

"Just a few light things are left to do. All the larger things were done. We just have to wash and polish some things. Oh, and I need to finish cooking dinner. That's about all." Sakura replied as she stretched out her stiff arms.

"That's a relief. If I had to lift one more rug I think I'd die." Sakura and Naruto just started to laugh. Standing up Sakura went and looked through the ice box a bit. Naruto had his head resting in his arms and seemed almost dead if it wasn't for the sound of his breathing. From what he could hear Sakura was rustling around the kitchen before a click was heard on the table in front of him. Lifting his head up Naruto noticed that Sakura had cooked him some turkey and potatoes. "What's this for Sakura?"

"It's a thank you for helping me out so far. You must be hungry too." As if on cue Naruto's stomach growled loudly. Blushing sheepishly Naruto started eating. "It's not much but you know how my step-mother hates it when she sees leftovers in the ice box."

Naruto nodded before swallowing what he had in his mouth. "What about you Sakura? Aren't you hungry?"

"Not really. I need to head into the market place for some more ingredients and such. I can grab an apple or something. Do you think you can handle yourself here for a bit?"

"Sure I can. I'm nineteen years old. I am no longer a child. I am an adult!" Naruto grinned widely. Sakura just playfully slapped his shoulder and laughed. Naruto laughed along too until a thought came to his mind. "What about the old hag?"

"She won't be back until four. It's only just past one now. I should be back in about half an hour's time give a few minutes." Sakura said, "What a relief too. If she came home any earlier I don't know what I'd do about all this work. Even with you here we would be cutting it really close.

"I know; that old hag is such pain in both yours and mine asses." Naruto complained.

"Yeah I know. So are you alright just for a little bit by yourself?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Don't worry I won't do anything stupid." Sakura rolled her eyes. "I'm serious! I won't do anything stupid." Sakura just shrugged and decided to believe him.

"Thanks Naruto." Sakura ran up the stairs quickly and changed out of her rags and into an old hand-me-down dress of Karin's. Sakura thanked God it was Karin's and not Ino's. She didn't want to look like a whore. Madam Vendarano realized that Sakura would need to go out into town to buy things. She didn't want people to see her in rags then somehow connect her back to their house. She had ordered Karin to give Sakura one of her old dresses. Sakura had to go into the village often to the dress was rather beaten compared to what it originally looked like. Even so, it was the best outfit Sakura owned at the moment.

The dress was an emerald green short sleeved dress where the sleeves were completely puffed. It reached down to just above her ankles and had a light green sash around the waist that tied into a small bow in the back. Sakura slipped on some black flats and quickly combed a few knots out of her hair so it would look presentable. Using a green ribbon she tied a bow on her head that held her hair off to the side so it would frame her face. Rushing down the stairs Sakura grabbed the money Madame Vendarano left her for food every month. She pulled out her black hooded cloak, she kept the hood down, and the large whicker basket from the closet. "Bye Naruto! I'll be back soon! Make sure the food doesn't burn or both you and I are going to be killed!" With a muffled response from Naruto Sakura left the house and started walking down the road towards the market place.

Once Sakura reached the main part of the market place she finally remembered how crowded it was at this time of the day. People were shoving and pushing her all around, this way and that. She sputtered a few apologizes before she found herself shoved out of the main section of the market and onto the stone pavement. Sakura winced in pain before she stood up and brushed off her dress. Sakura groaned in frustration. She had a tear in her dress. It was small but a tear none the less. It was about an inch large and towards the bottom of her dress. "Great, Madam is going to kill me." Sakura was then bumped again and fell back onto her bum. "Ouch."

"I'm sorry. Are you alright Miss?" A voice asked. Sakura winced in pain as the person helped her stand up again. The hand was soft but still much too large to be a female's hand. "Are you hurt?"

"Not really, just a little sore. I've forgotten how busy the market is around this time of the day." Looking at the face of the man you helped her Sakura had to hold back a blush. The man was truly beautiful. He had long dark black hair tied at the nape of his neck and was draped over his shoulder. A set of shorter bangs framed his well shaped face in a way that he looked angelic. He wore a black dress suit with a red tie. Sakura could tell that he came from an extremely wealthy family of some sort. It was then Sakura noticed that the man in front of her also had deep onyx eyes and what seemed like stress marks of some sort of either side of his nose.

The man let out a low chuckle. "I've noticed that. Though thanks to these busy streets I was able to slip away from my father for a bit." The man once again chuckled. "I'm sorry I never introduced myself. I'm Itachi, Uchiha Itachi. You are?"

At this point Sakura had snapped out of her trance and smiled at Itachi. "I'm...Haruno Sakura. Pleasure you meet you Uchiha-san. Though, why do you want to get anyway from your father?"

"Well he's a bit demanding and always serious. I can only deal with enough of that in one day before needing to break away for a bit." The sound of shoes on the cobble stone walk was reached the duo's ears and Itachi snapped his head to the side. There were three people in all black suits heading right towards them. "Damn it. They found me." Itachi grabbed hold of Sakura's wrist and pulled her along behind him as he waved them in and out of the crowd of people.

Sakura didn't know what to do or say at this point. All she wanted was to buy some ingredients to finish the dinner for her step-mother's guests. Now she had a ripped dress, met a total stranger, and was now being pulled all round the market place by said stranger while being followed by men in black. This was certainly not her best day. After a minute or two of being pulled all around the market place the two of them finally stopped by the Bakery. Sakura was now out of breath and panting heavily. Itachi looked around and sighed.

"The coast looks clear." At that moment it registered in his head what he did. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pull you along. You were probably doing something else."

Sakura smiled, "No need to worry Uchiha-san. The Bakery was actually on my list of places I needed to visit." Sakura dusted herself off again but frowned. It looked like the running had caused the rip in her dress to widen. It was about three inches large now. Itachi seemed to notice this and frowned slightly as well.

"I'm sorry it seems like I've caused you to rip your dress."

"Oh no, it was already ripped before. Though it does seem like I'll defiantly have to patch this up when I get home." Sakura's more curious part of her mind started wondering something. Her thoughts go the better half of her and she decided to speak aloud her thoughts. "Why were you being chases by those men in black?"

"I'm not a criminal just to let you know. Those men work for my father. They are supposed to protect us. I guess they noticed I slipped away and went out looking for me." Itachi chuckled once again. "I don't want to be found by them quite yet."

"Protect you?" Sakura asked, "Why?"

Itachi sighed, "It comes with the responsibility of being the son of a Duke."

Sakura nodded in agreement but stopped when she comprehended what Itachi just said. "What! You're the son of a Duke!"

"My Prince," A man in red dress robes said as he kneeled on the ground. "The Elders have called for you. They are expecting you in the throne room imminently."

A teenage man, with blood red hair just stared out the window of his private library. Slowly he turned towards the messenger. His eyes void of any emotion but still struck great fear in the heart of the man. His sea foam green eyes seemed as if they looked right through the man's head. The dark rings around his eyes gave them an even more menacing look to them. "Why are you here?" His voice was cold as ice and sent a visible shiver down the messenger's spine. "Answer me." This time his voice held even more harshness in it.

"T-the Elders have-" A quill was thrown with precision accuracy and whizzed by his head. It in lodged itself into the floor behind him. The man let out a sound of shock but did not dare to move from his spot on the floor. The red haired teen in front of him was now fully facing the messenger. His arm was still out reached form throwing the quill.

"I heard that part just fine. What I meant was; what are you doing...in this room." The teen placed his arm back at his side and glared menacingly at the now terrified man. "Everyone in this castle knows about this room." The teen lifted up his arms widely gesturing at the entire room. "That this room is my private library. I can tell just by looking at you that you have been here a long time. Therefore you should defiantly know that this room is off limits to everyone."

The man seemed to gather up a small about of courage and tried to defend himself. "But the Elders insist that you report to the throne room imminently!" That was the wrong thing to say.

The red head was standing in front of the man in a blink of an eye and now had the man by the neck of his robes and held him up high above his head. "I got that part you idiot. You know the rules of the castle and yet you broke one of the most important ones!" The grip the young prince had on the robes tightened as the man struggles to free himself from the prince's grasp. "No one under any circumstances is to ever enter my private library!" With that said the gasping man was roughly thrown out of the room and into a nearby table. Thoroughly smashing said table and scattering the contents of it all over the hall. The man started gasping and choking for air. With a slam of the doors to the prince's library and a click of several keys the doors were closed and locked. As the red haired prince walked by the cowering messenger he snorted in disgust at him.

"Pathetic, you better have another job in mind and your stuff packed and gone in the next hour because you're relieved you your duty. If I find you even near the castle grounds again you will wish you were never brought into this world." With that final word the prince started walking down the hall towards the throne room. A panicked messenger ran past the prince towards him own room to pack his things.

Heatedly the angered prince walked down the hall and into the awaiting throne room. When he entered he saw that the two head Elders; Chiyo and Ebizo. They were two elderly siblings who were rather crazy but the head of the Elders. Both of them stood by the throne of the pervious King and Queen; the father and mother to the young prince.

"Prince Gaara; took your time didn't you?" Chiyo said. "We were beginning to wonder if you got lost." The old lady let out a high pitched crackle.

Gaara growled at the laughing old woman in front of him. "I'm not here to play your stupid games. What do you want?"

Chiyo stopped her crackling and stared the prince in front of her. "I know you weren't on the best of terms with your father; the king;" Gaara snorted and rolled his eyes there. "But he was still your father. Now that he's passed on we need to start thinking about the future of Suna. The kingdom can not go too long with out a king. It is unheard of."

Gaara was no fool. He could already see the outcome of what the old lady had planned in her mind and he did not like it one bit. "No! I will not follow in that man's foot steps. I will not become king. Why don't you make Temari Queen? She's the eldest."

Ebizo sighed; he knew something like this was going to happen. He tried warning his elder sister but of cores being her crazy self she didn't listen. "It is custom that when the time comes a son must take the throne. Either way Princess Temari is already in an arrangement for marriage with a Nobleman from Konoha."

"If you want a son so badly use Kankuro. He's the eldest son." Gaara barked getting angrier and angrier every passing second.

"Your brother Prince Kankuro received a letter of request from the Sound Kingdom. Their only remaining heir is female. For her to take the throne she must wed. Prince Kankuro is going to marry her and rule the Sound kingdom. This will spread our influence around and strengthen our bond with the other kingdom as well."

Gaara was at this point seething with anger. "Then give the damn crown to my cousin. You're grand-son I don't care." Gaara glared at Chiyo. "I certainly know he would love to rule this kingdom. So give it to him because I'm certainly not ruling this damned kingdom."

This time Chiyo spoke, "You know very well that even though he is your cousin Sasori is not a direct descendent of the previous king. Therefore he is not considered to have obtained any royal blood. Due to all these facts that only leaves one remaining person to be heir to the throne and kingdom. That person is you Prince Gaara."

"No, I refuse!" Gaara was seething anger off every inch of his body. He refused to have these old hags tell him what he was going to do.

The two crazy Elders ignored Gaara's outburst and continued speaking on. "In one month's time their will be a royal ball arranged." Ebizo started out, "As many as possible available young women your age will be invited to attend. No matter if they are royalty or not."

Gaara's eyes widened. He did not like where this was going so far.

"There you will dance and make small conversation with all of them and then determine out of all of them five who you consider possible choices to rule with you."

"No, no way. You can't make me. I won't!" Not only were they trying to make him take the crown they were also forcing him to get married. This is beyond inhumane.

Chiyo cut him off before he could protest anymore. "I'm sorry Prince Gaara but that is how it has to be. You must wed before you take the crown and you must take the crown by your nineteenth birthday."

Gaara was shocked, that soon. They wanted all of this to happen by his nineteenth birthday. "That's only four months away! You can't possible expect me to get married in that time!"

"We do and you are."

"No, I deny all this! I'll relinquish my title as prince! I am not taking the throne or marrying anyone!" Gaara would not let these people control his life. He was his own person and he could do what he pleased.

Chiyo let out a loud crackle again. "It's too late Prince Gaara. Not only has this been decided unanimously by the Elder council but both Princess Temari and Prince Kankuro agreed. And to add even more to this, these exact plans were told to be carried out...in your father's will."

Gaara froze on the spot. This was all planned out…in the will of his father? That man had planned this even before he died! That sick twisted bastard! He wanted to ruin his son's life before it barely began. "I don't believe you. You're lying."

Chiyo held up a piece of paper. "I'm not Prince Gaara. It's written right here in plain black and white. We are the Head Elders, so we know what the other Elders voted. You can even ask your older siblings but they won't deny it. They agreed with the plan. Even Sasori thought it was a good idea."

Gaara was now shaking from his tensed fits and was frozen, his eyes wide opened. This couldn't be happening. It can't be.

"Be prepared Prince Gaara, in four months time you will be wed and go from Prince Sabaku no Gaara of Suna to King Sabaku no Gaara."

Reality came crashing down upon Gaara full force and knocked him to his knees. This was real and actually going to happen. He couldn't do anything to stop it. One thing ran through his mind at that moment.

He was fucking screwed.

**Well there you finally go; the third chapter to my story. I finally had Gaara introduced into the story and Itachi and Naruto appeared as well. I actually sat down and pretty much wrote this entire chapter in one sitting. My friend begged me to up-date more often so here is an up-date! Sorry once again for any spelling/grammar mistakes. If you notice anything wrong or want to suggest something please tell me. I'd love to hear from you. **

**Also yes the waiter was Haku! Congratulations the no named anonymous review and Neko-Chan11772! You got it right. Cookies for both of you! To Daughter-of-Nyx7845, good guess of Itachi. The way I described him I guess it did sound like Itachi. Good job to all of you either way!**

**Next chapter will revolve around the Dukes (Uchihas and Hyuugas) arriving at the Vendarano's house for dinner. After that I probably will have the chapter after that revolve solely on Gaara and the others in the castle.**

**I know Gaara seemed really OOC in the end but I could not think of any other way to end the chapter no matter how hard I thought about it. When I wrote the ending part I was thinking of Gaara standing in an area of complete darkness with a sole spot light on him. Like in those animes when something comes as a huge shock to a character. I know my description is horrible, but just go with it OK.**

**Please read and review. Also sharing the story with others would be helpful as well. Voting for SasuKarin or SugiKarin is still open so vote! You can vote once for every chapter from chapter two until I say the voting is closed. So if you really want whatever pairing you want review and include your vote! **

**Thank you!**


	4. Sudden Change and Their Arrival

'**_A Different Type of Cinderella Story'_- A _Naruto_ fan fiction**

**By mew luchia**

"Can I have a dozen bread rolls please." Sakura politely asked the rather heavy baker behind the counter. With a nod the baker headed towards his back room to get Sakura's order. While waiting Sakura decided to start conversation with the man standing next to her, Uchiha Itachi, who she was just informed was the son to a Duke. 'Uchiha-sama," She started out before Itachi cut her off.

"Please, no '-sama'. I'm not too fond of being called such." Itachi gave Sakura a small smile, "We know each other as well. So no need for such formalities."

Sakura blushed slightly and nodded. "Uchiha-san," Itachi sighed but let her continue on either way. "Why did you not tell me you were the son of a Duke?"

"Well, I did not see the point in telling you such a thing at the time. We were too busy avoiding my persistence body guards. Remember, Haruno-san?"

'_Oh yeah, we were being chased by those men in black. I remember now. Stupid me.' _Sakura thought in her head. _'Don't I look like an idiot now.' _Sakura let out a nervous laugh, "That's right. Must have slipped my mind."

At that moment the Baker returned with a brown bag containing the rolls Sakura had ordered. Paying the man and giving a small 'thank you' Sakura and Itachi left the Bakery and started walking down the roads of the busy market. Every so often Sakura would stop by a stand to either look at something or purchase some food.

"Haruno-san," Itachi said "Why are you in need of all these things?"

Sakura who was currently examining a pumpkin looked up long haired man. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, what are going to do with all these different type of foods. I doubt that if you mix them all together that they will make anything delicious." He paused for a moment as he looked back into her basket. Eggs, sugar, cream, a squash, a head of lettuce, and bread rolls. "Or editable for the matter."

Sakura blinked at few times in confusion as she stared at Itachi. Was he really serious? He thought she was going to mix all these random ingredients together. She continued to stare at his face half expecting him start laughing and tell her he was just kidding. Itachi did no such thing. His face stayed just as blank and serious as it was when he first asked the question. Realizing that he was straight out serious about his question Sakura began laughing. It was not a normal soft laugh, but a loud and crazy laugh.

Itachi was rather shocked at Sakura's response. Never had anyone, besides his brother, laugh at him. As well as in such a way that she was laughing at him. Uchiha Itachi, the son of a great Duke in the kingdom of Konoha...and she was laughing at him. A few by standing people were casting the pink haired girl a few glances of wonder. Some were whispering to their friends. Itachi, decided to save the young girl from embarrassing herself anymore. Though, Itachi had never dealt with this type of problem before. So he did the first thing that came to him mind. He slapped his hand onto her mouth.

Sakura felt the impact of Itachi's hand clasping itself onto her face and glared at the son of the Duke. Said man just laughed nervously and waved his other hand to the staring people. The people just decided that it was taken care of and continued on their way. Once the people stopped paying attention to the two Sakura took this moment to forcefully shove Itachi's hand of her mouth.

"What the hell was that for?" She seethed at Itachi.

"I need to you to be quiet." Itachi bluntly answered. Sakura started at him, was he serious? By the fact that his face expression did not change at all proved that he was.

Sakura sighed loudly and started looking though the pumpkins again. "Well that's not how to get someone to quiet down. I understand that you were probably raised off in some fancy mansion, but they should have taught you some proper social manners."

"Only for when needed for Balls and such."

"Are your serious?" Had this guy never been outside and socialized with other people his age? "Well first of all you don't slap your hand on someone's mouth to get them to be quiet. Unless you want to be rude."

Itachi nodded mentally keeping it as a record in his head. "Alright then, but I still don't understand why you found the reason to laugh at me."

Sakura paid the man for the small pumpkin and continued to walk down the main street of the market place. "Well you thought that I would actually combined all these ingredients into one dish. Don't you know anything about cooking?"

Itachi shook his head, "I don't, I have always had the chefs cook all the meals."

Sakura laughed, "Well you don't know what your missing. If you used the proper ingredients and follow the directions correctly you can make all that wonderful food you get to eat in that mansion of yours."

"Interesting, please explain more about this."

For the next twenty minutes Sakura and Itachi continued shopping around the market place looking for the things Sakura still needed to finish the feast. As they shopped Sakura explained the many different things needed for cooking as well as all different types of recipes she learned over the years. Itachi seemed rather interested in all of it. He never had know that cooking was such a complicated thing to do. All the amounts, ingredients, and the whole process of it all. He had to convince his father to raise the pay of their chefs when they got home.

"That's it," Sakura placed a small amount of parsnip in her now filled basket. "All done with my shopping. Thank you very much for accompanying me Uchiha-san."

"It was my pleasure. I enjoyed your company." Itachi smiled, "Do you need any help getting this back to your house? I could ask my father to lend us his carriage."

"No, no it's alright. I have done this many times before and with much heavier loads than this. I should be fine." Sakura cut Itachi off, "I can do this myself. I don't need to be babied."

What surprised Sakura was what Itachi did next. He started laughing. Not a chuckle like he did before, and not like her earlier outburst of hysterics. Just plain old laughing. "I'm sorry Haruno-san, but what you just said reminded me a lot of my younger brother. He would say just about the same thing as you just did."

"You have a younger brother?"

"Yes, I do. He just turned eighteen years old a few weeks ago. He likes to act as if he's the most mature and independent person in the world."

"Sounds rather full of himself." Sakura commented, people like that usually annoyed her to no end. They reminded her too much of her Step-family.

Itachi laughed again, "He is. Though if you actually get to know him he's rather nice. Just always stressed out and tense. I think that caused his to be that way. Same thing happened to me when I was his age. I began to loosen up a bit and I became an over all better person. You don't want to know what..." Itachi stop talking for a moment seemed like he had got lost in his own thoughts.

Sakura stared at Itachi for a moment before she waved her hand in front of his face. "Uchiha-san? Is everything alright?"

Itachi snapped put of his thoughts and stared at Sakura for a moment before smiling. "I'm quite alright; just remembered something of the past. Though, lets leave that for another day. Shall we."

Sakura felt a nagging feeling in the back of her head wanting her to ask his what it was that happened. Her more piratical side was telling her to not pry into the private life of a man she had just met. Instead she decided to find a different subject to talk about. "If you don't mind me asking, but how old are you? Your younger brother is actually just a bit younger than me so I was wondering how old you are."

"You're eighteen?" Sakura nodded, "I see, I thought you must have been sixteen or seventeen. I would never imaged that you would be eighteen, let alone older than my brother." Sakura blushed, she had never really been complimented of any sort by anyone other than Naruto's playful complements. Itachi smirked, "Well, my age is about five years over my brother's so that would make me twenty-three."

Sakura's eyes widened for a moment. She didn't realize how old Itachi really was, she could have sworn he was nineteen or twenty. But twenty-three years old? She was not expecting that. "Amazing, my ste- I mean, the Misses of the household would love to know your secret to looking so young yet being older then you are."

"I will have to met them and share my wonderful secrets to my beauty." The two of them began to laugh. "I would also love for you to met my brother. Your personality is exactly what he needs to loosen up a bit.

"I would love to met him. Now does this 'oh so wonderful' bother you keep talking about have a name?"

"Yes he does. his name is Sa-" Before Itachi could finish Sakura let out a loud gasp. "Is something the matter?"

"I had not realized how late it has gotten. I have been gone nearly an hour!" Sakura yelled out. "I am so sorry I need to run off like this, but I really need to go. I have so much work to do before Madame gets back. It was a pleasure meting you and I would hope to see you again somewhere in the future. Thank you for keeping my company. Goodbye Uchiha-san." With that last word said Sakura had started quickly walking down the road and pushing past people. In a matter of seconds she was out of Itachi's sight and disappeared.

Itachi stood there and started in the direction in which the pink haired girl had gone until a hand was placed on his shoulder. Turning his head Itachi inwardly complained loudly while on the outside he just sighed heavily. One of his body guards and found him. Even worse than that was the fact that the body guard that found him was Kisame. There was no chance of escape for the rest of the day.

"Uchiha-sama, we have been looking all over for you. Your father is going up in a frenzy. Come with me now. We need to get you back to the Summer mansion. You have a dinner to attend to at the Vendarano's tonight. You must get ready." Nodding his head Itachi followed next to Kisame down the sidewalk of the market and into the village center where a carriage with the other two men in black were standing. "If you don't mind me asking, who was that girl I saw you talking with?"

Itachi climbed into the carriage with Kisame and the other two got in the front and got the carriage moving towards the Summer mansion. Itachi started out the window of the carriage and the rode down the road. Along the way passing a frazzled pink haired girl running down a side branch road. "She was just someone I met in the market place."

Kisame smirked, "What's she to you?"

Itachi watched the the pink haired girl disappeared behind a few trees and smiled. "Just, a very nice friend." Turning towards Kisame again Itachi got a serious face on again. "Kisame, did you know that their are actually more than one type of egg?"

**...**

"I'm back!" Sakura yelled as she yanked open the door to the house, tossed her cloak into the closet and dashed into the kitchen.

Naruto who had come out of the living room with a wet rag in one have and a worried look plastered onto his face. "Sakura, what took you so long? You were gone almost an hour. Did something happen?"

Sakura placed the basket on the counter and started going through the back pulling out all different things. "I'm sorry Naruto. I had run into someone and we decided to talk for a bit. He was rather nice; helped me with my shopping and what not. In the chatting I seemed to have lost track of the time."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, but decided to leave it at that for now. "Well while you were gone I polished that silver and I'm working on the windows now. I was a little scared to work on those china dishes. You know; butter fingers and all."

"Oh Naruto, I feel so horrible. You have done most of my chores today. All while I was off socializing with some man in the market."

"Don't think too much about it. You do this type of work everyday. Having one day where your're swamped and let someone else do most of the work is not going to kill you. Either way you needed a little relaxing time."

"Thank you Naruto. For everything." The rest of the afternoon before Madame Vendarano was to return Sakura and Naruto worked extra hard to finish. When the dinner was done and the chores finally finished it was just fifteen to four. Naruto said it was time for him to leave. One reason was to avoid the 'old hag' and the other was because his Master was probably expecting him back to work the evening away. Sakura wished him luck and told him to stop by the next day for some of the leftovers from the dinner. With that said Naruto ran out the door and down the street. Sakura started cleaning the kitchen from her cooking.

Just when Sakura had finished the front door slammed open. Her Step-family was home.

"Sakura! Where are you?" Madame Vendarano called. Running into the main hall Sakura bowed to her step-mother.

"You called?" Her step-mother looked at Sakura's change of clothes.

"I see you went to the market. I hope no one found out who you were connected to. If news got out that such an ugly creature was related to me. Why, I don't know what I'd do." Glancing around the house the woman sneered, "The chores look done. What about dinner? We have very important guests coming today."

"All prepared. It's in the oven and on the stove so it will stay warm until they arrive. Which is when I may ask."

"Six, rather soon. It does not give us much time to get ready." She sneered, "You will be serving us today, be on you best behavior. Karin!"

Karin walked into the main hall from the den. "Yes, Mother?" Karin's once mid-back long hair was now just about an inch or two below her chin. She had removed her ribbon and her hair was in small curls at the ends.

"That dress I bought at that store. You know which one, give it to this girl. As much as I hate giving her things even she much look somewhat manageable for tonight."

Ino walked past Karin and whispered in her hear with a smug smirk on her face. Whatever Ino said got Karin all railed up. Sending her sister a sharp glare Karin handed Sakura the bag with the dress inside.

Madam Vendarano smacked Sakura on the head with her fan. "Put it on right before them come and do not socialize with any of them. As far as they will know you are just a house maid and that's all." She sent Sakura a glare so icy cold that the temperature of the room almost seemed to drop a few degrees. "I want to make myself clear. Do not mess this up." Madam Vendarano stalked out of the hall and up the stairs, Ino trailing behind her. Karin stood there a moment just looking at Sakura with a blank face before she too walked up the stairs.

Sakura ran to her room and placed the bag on her bed. She was just about to remove the contents when Ino called in a sharp voice for Sakura. Sighing Sakura left the bag on her 'bed' and ran off towards Ino's room. "You called Miss Ino?"

Ino, who was standing in her underwear turned and glared at Sakura. "Yes I did. I need to get ready for tonight. I'm going to apply my make-up and you are to do my hair." Ino's arm quickly reached forwards and grabbed the top of Sakura's head pulling at her hair. Sakura hissed in pain, but dare not cry out. "Listen here, you better get my hair perfect or I will make you wish you were never born."

Sakura nodded and Ino let go of of her hair. Without a sound Sakura grabbed a hairbrush and started brushing out Ino's hair. Ino was cleaning her face of her old make-up and then started applying a heavy base color to her face. As Ino continued as she piled more and more make-up onto her face. Once she was happy with her look Ino had a large thick layer of make-up on and was proud of it. Her face was now a peachier color from it's original tone and her cheeks held a light pink tinge to them. Her eyes had a plum purple color to them and her lips were a ruby red. Even though the style of make-up Ino wore was not something Sakura liked, or even thought of wearing herself, she did have to admit that Ino did look rather nice.

For her hair Sakura had put it up in a high piled bun with a curved bang coming down over her forehead and part of her eye. In the large bun several well placed jewel in-crested clips were placed to hold it up. Ino examined her hair with an extreme critical eye. "It will have to do. I wish I could have gone to the salon but the bitch of a sister booked the last spot for the month." Ino glared at her reflection in the mirror until she glances at Sakura's. Said girl flinched, but didn't move from her spot.

Ino turned and glared at Sakura, "Make yourself useful and fetch my new dress from that white bag there. And be careful! If any harm is done to that dress I'll kill you!" Sakura walked over to the bag and pulled out one of the most fanciest dressed she had ever seen, Walking back towards Ino, Sakura helped Ino into the dress and zipped it up.

Ino looked at herself in the mirror a few times and smiled. "I look simply stunning!" The dress was a plum purple color and had a corset like top. A white ribbon created the criss-cross pattern of the front and tied a bow in the front as well. The bottom half came out in a fashion that it looked like a smaller version of a ball gown. Two large purple pieces of fabric were draped on the sides. The bottom had a detailed designee of fabrics, lace, and rhinestones on it, Turning towards Sakura Ino stated shoving her out of the room. "Out, I have no more need for you. Go help mother or Karin." With that Ino shoved Sakura out of her room and slammed the door in her face.

Sighing Sakura started walking towards her Step-mother's room. Knocking on the door it was quickly opened to revile her Step-mother with some green goo on her face. "What on Earth do you want you horrible child? Can't you see I'm busy."

"I'm sorry Madam, I was just wondering if you were in need of any assistance getting ready for the gusts."

"No, now leave me alone" Again a door was slammed in Sakura's face. Sakura sighed again and walked towards Karin's room. Sakura was about to knock on the door when it bursted open to revel a frazzled looking Karin.

"Miss Karin? Is everything alright?" Sakura questioned. Before she knew it Karin had pulled Sakura roughly by the arm and into her room. Slamming the door shut and locking it Karin turned towards Sakura and glared.

"No everything this is not alright! You know how I said the people Mother was inviting over were probably people she was trying to marry Ino off to." Sakura nodded, "Well I was right. What I wan't expecting was that Mother was going to be inviting DUKES over to the house! Not only that but she was going to try to marry Ino off to one of their sons!"

At the sound of Duke and their sons Sakura's mind instantly went to think about Itachi and his mysterious younger brother. Itachi said he and his brother were the sons of a Duke. So that meant there was a possibility that it could have been Itachi's family that was coming over for dinner. Sakura started panicking.

"Are you even listening to me!" Karin screeched at Sakura. The pink haired girl quickly snapped back to reality and pushed her thoughts to the back of her mind.

"Of corse Miss Karin."

Karin sighed and sat on her bed, "What am I going to do? Mother is going to be focusing all her attention on marrying Ino off to one of them that I wont have any room to make any sort of move towards them."

Sakura was not found of any members of her step-family, but Karin always seemed a bit nicer than Ino or the Madam. Sakura also felt sorry for Karin. She knew how much Ino flirted with any man with a good looking face. For the sons of Dukes to be coming over with the slim chance of one marrying her; Ino wasn't got to let any of them out of her sight.

"Miss Karin, if I may. I have a tip for you." Sakura quietly inquired.

Karin looked up at Sakura and sneered slightly. "What help could you possibly provide me?"

"Well you could just be yourself and let Miss Ino flirt with them."

Karin shot up off the bed fuming. "What the hell would I do that for!"

"Well, If Miss Ino starts flirting with them they could easily become bored of her." Sakura said in a fast manner. She needed Karin to clam down; and fast! A mad Karin was not a good Karin.

Karin stared at Sakura for a moment as the gears in her head started turning. Then with a snap Karin smiled. "I get it! Ino is a terrible flirt, she is also so obvious with it as well! Unless they like girls who act like common street whores they will start ignoring Ino! Then when that times comes I swoop in all normal and well mannered like and wham! I got them wrapped around my figure! I can't believe I'm saying this but thank you! You're a genius!"

Sakura smiled widely, she had never been giving a complement or a thank be anyone of the step-family. She knew it would not last long so Sakura decided to savor the moment, but not get too used to it. "You're welcome Miss Karin. Do you need any help getting ready?"

"Yes, go find my dinner party dress and shoes while I start on my make-up. Mons-I mean- Deidara already did my hair."

"Deidara?" Sakura asked, she had never head that name before.

"That is Monsieur Larice. Deidara is his real name. He does not like being called Monsieur Larice. Makes him feel old. Now, stop standing thee like a tree and go get my dress.

Sakura ran into Karin's closet and look around. she finally found it in the back corner wrapped in plastic to keep moths away from it. Examining the bag Sakura breathed a sigh of relief to see no moths seemed to find their way to the dress. Walking back into the main part of the bedroom Karin already had her make-up done. Her face had a light base color to it and her eyes had a white shimmering around them with a touch of gold coloring. Her cheeks were light tan-pink and her lips a soft red. Part of her hair was pinned up at the back of her head and the curls fell in a beautiful way.

Sakura helped Karin into her dress and zippered it up the back. Karin looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. The dress was a white color and was a snug fit around her torso. It fanned out at the waist down and at the bottom was a gold colored trim. The gold trim was also along the torso as it came down into two lines down the front with a criss-cross pattern in between the two lines. A gold colored sash was tied around the waist with a bow in the back and another gold colored sash was wrapped around her shoulders with a crystal flower broch in the middle.

"How do I look?" Kain asked.

"Wonderful as always Miss Karin." Sakura smiled. Karin stared at Sakura with a blank look on her face. "Is everything alright?"

"Go get that bag Mother gave you before. Bring it here." Sakura stared at Karin in confusion but did as she was told. When she returned Karin snatched the bag from Sakura and placed it on her bed. "Go wash your face then sit there." Karin pointed to the bowl of water with the towel then her make-up table. Sakura started at Karin again and did not move. "Are you deaf now? Get going."

Quickly Sakura went over to the bowl and washed her face then sat down at the table. She looked greatly nervous. Sakura had no idea what Karin was doing. She had never done anything like this before. Sakura was pulled form her thoughts when a hair brush started making it's way though her hair. "Don't get used to this," Karin's voice said. "This isn't going to be a regular thing. If you look bad in front of the Dukes then the whole family looks bad." Karin took two hair bands and started putting a little bit of Sakura's hair in to pig-tails at the sides of her head as the rest stayed down. "Plus think this as a thank you for the great tip to snatch a Duke's son." Karin giggled, "This is going to be great."

Once Karin was done with Sakura's hair she instructed Sakura to turn around. When she did so Karin applied a light blush to Sakura's face along with a light pink lipstick and eye shadow. "I never use these colors anymore. They don't match anything I own anymore. You can have them." Karin put the cosmetics in the bag from before and then pulled out something black and white from the bag. "Mother got this because she does not want you to tarnish the family name in those rags of yours." Tossing the dress to Sakura she ordered her to put it on. Sakura slipped it on and Karin zipped the back up much to Sakura's surprise. Then Karin took the white cloth and tied it around Sakura's waist and slipped her arms though two ruffly pieces of fabric. Placing something on Sakura's head Karin smiled. "Look in the mirror."

Sakura turned to look at herself in the mirror half expecting to see some horrible outfit, but gasped when she saw what she was wearing. It was a typical maid uniform but it was such an improvement from the rag cloths she wore all the time before. It was a dark black dress that had a snug fit at the torso and had a curved white high collar. The sleeves were long and snug to her arms. They had large white cuffs at the ends with silver buttons. The bottom part of the maid dress was puffed out with the pedi skirt holding it up so. A white apron that had a neat bow tied in the back at her waist rested on top of the dress and had an upper part than had ruffles for straps and around the edges. On her head nestled just in front of the small pig-tails was ruffly white head band of sort. Her face also glowed with the make-up on. It wasn't too much or too little. Sakura smiled brightly. Sakura could feels tears building up in her eyes.

"Don't start crying now. You'll ruin you make-up." Karin pulled out a pair of white stockings and black Mary-Jane heeled shoes. "These don't fit me anymore. You wear them. Put them on now, the Dukes should be here any minute."

Sakura did just no then folded her other cloths and put them in the white bag. She turned towards Karin and smiled. "Thank you Miss Karin."

Kain felt a warm feeling in her chest and instantly remember what Deidara had told her right before she left his salon.

"_Thank you again Deidara. My hair looks wonderful." Karin said as she started leaving the salon._

"_Karin dear," Deidara called out._

"_Yes?" Karin asked as she turned towards Deidara._

"_About your step-sister; try to do something nice for her. Be kind, help her with something, anything. Even just give her a smile or compliment. Trust me you will feel a great warmth and a feeling of accomplishment in your heart."_

Karin smiled back at Sakura, _'Deidara was right, I do feel all nice and happy inside. Maybe being nice is better then being intimidating.' _Just then the sound of horses could be heard from the front. "Oh my, that must be the Dukes. Sakura, go put those things back in your room then get down stairs quickly or Mother will have your head." Sakura nodded and ran out of the room. Karin slipped on some white heels and put on her diamond jewelry set before rushing down stairs as well. She quickly but gracefully walked outside and stood next to her sister and mother.

Sakura in the meantime placed her bag in her room and then ran down the stairs and outside. She composed herself and stood a few feet back from her step-family, or her employers for now, and watched as the carriage doors opened and five people stepped out of the two different carriages. Once the carriages were emptied of the people inside Sakura had to suppress a huge gasp.

Madam Vendarano stepped forwards with grace and smiled at the two families. "Welcome to our home. It's an honor to have to here Lord Hyuga and Lord Uchiha. Along with your sons."

A tall man in fancy white Japanese styled robes stepped forwards. He had brown hair and pearly white eyes. Next to him was a younger boy who looked to be about Karin's age and held the same looks the the older man. "Pleasure being here Madam Vendarano. I"m Hizashi Hyuga and this is my son Neji Hyuuga."

The boy, Neji, bowed. "Greetings."

The other man stepped forwards' he too was tall but wore a black dress suit and had short black hair and a few wrinkles on his face. "Fugaku Uchiha. These are my sons Sasuke and Itachi Uchiha."

**I know I said this was going to be the dinner chapter then the Gaara chapter, but this chapter became too long and I could not post it all in one chapter. I'm terribly sorry. I promise that the Gaara-centric chapter will be coming up soon.**

**So what do you guys think? I've made Karin nicer, don't worry she will still be a bitch throughout the story, but at times she will be rather nice towards Sakura. It's all part of the plan. **

**So far I believe SuiKarin is winning, but remember you can still vote until I decided to stop the voting. Though that probably wont be for some chapters later. So Neji and Sasuke finally made an appearance! Too bad they didn't really have any lines. Don't worry they will talk more in the next chapter.**

**I've up-dated A LOT sooner than I usually do. Blame and thank the fact that I became sick. Depends which way you look at it. Again this was written in about one sitting. Just took a day for editing because I was sick, again. My laptop is fixed and virus free (after like four months) so I'm happy. I can stop computer jumping.**

**I saw the Super Bowl, it was pretty interesting. Don't hate me football fans, but I actually only watch the Super Bowl for the funny commercials and the halftime show. Sadly I thought the commercials were not that funny this year and the halftime show did seem so great to me. They sound better on the music mp3 then live. And the lady(forgot name) who sang the anthem. I think she missed a line and I wasn't too found of it either. Did not sound right to me. Byoncé's is still my favorite.**

**Enough of my ranting about this stuff. So please review and tell me what you think so far, vote, and give me ideas! Thank you! :)**


	5. Important Author Note and Ch5incompleat

_**VERY IMPORTANT NOTE! PLEASE READ THIS!**_

**Hello everybody! I know it's been a very long time, over a year actually, and I am internally sorry for that! I will give you a quick list as to why I haven't updated!**

**1) SchoolThe main reason I haven't updated. This year was one of the hardest years I've ever had to deal with; second only to eighth grade. I took classes that are a year above my grade level and on top of that they were all advanced classes. So I basically killed my brain. I am a failure as an Asian.**

**2) Writer's block A lame excuses, but a truthful one. I wrote about 90 percent of the fifth chapter then my brain just stopped functioning. I couldn't think of how to end it without it looking choppy and rushed.**

**3) Writing styleMy style of writing has evolved from what it was when I first started this story. I've tried to go back and change things around, but every time I just give up because there is so much I feel needs to be changed. I also found my other way of writing very cheesy and just; bad. It felt like Mary-Sue writing. I don't want that. I also feel like the development of the characters and their dynamics was very rough and just poorly written. Again in a Mary-Sue type fashion.**

**4) Lack of interest Truthfully, I've slipped out of the Naruto fandom. Just recently I've started taking a look at the series and fandom again. So that's inspired me to try to start writing for this story again. That is, if people really want me to continue it.**

**5) PersonalSome personal things have recently come up. I don't feel completely comfortable telling you in detail about them, but they have caused some problems and such. Things have calmed down a lot, but it did cause problems, especially recently.**

**So I am again sorry for the lack of updates! I appreciate the reviews and I'm glad people like this old story of mine. I may rewrite this story, but I'm not completely sure yet. I'm not going to delete it from the site so you can continue to read what I have to your hearts content. If people really want me to continue this I would really like to know. Reviews are welcome and encouraged because it makes most writers happy and influence them to write more!**

**Since author notes as chapters are not allowed below is what I had written for the fifth chapter. It is more advanced writing that the first four chapters, but it's still not the same as how I currently write. You can also note that I changed 'Dukes' to 'Lords'. It just fit better. Please enjoy this old bad writing of mine.**

* * *

Sakura had to hold in gasping loudly as she laid eyes on no other Itachi Uchiha standing in front of her. How could this be happening? Someone from up about must really be in a bad mood for this to happen. One of the last things that Sakura wanted to happen was for Itachi to see that she had to work for and how she was treated. Sakura made a silent pray that he would not learn that these people were her family. Sakura took a deep breath and smiled widely.

In the meantime Madam Vendarano was greeting the guests with a large about of grace and politeness. "Lord Hyuuga, Lord Uchiha, once again thank you so very much for coming to visit us today."

Lord Hyuuga smiled slightly, "It was no problem at all. I would need to come to Suna anyway for meetings with the Head Elders so why not visit an old friend's family."

"Yes Mister Haruno was quite a pleasant man," Lord Uchiha said, "a shame he had to die at such a young age."

Itachi's eyes widened slightly at the sound of 'Haruno'. He remembered the young girl that he met in the village market earlier that day was named Haruno. Then his eye caught sight of something pink, looking up Itachi held in the urge to gasp loudly. There standing a few feet behind the Vendaranos was Sakura and she was wearing a maid's outfit. Quickly Itachi's mind started racing; Sakura Haruno, Mister Haruno, Madame Vendarano's dead husband. Then it all made sense. Sakura was Mister Haruno's daughter and when he died she was now serving Madame Vendarano and her daughters like a maid. A feeling of rage dawned upon Itachi and it took all his might from lashing out at the woman greeting them, but he was a wise man for his age. Yelling at the Madame would not only be disrespectful and a disgrace to his family, but it could also get Sakura in a lot of trouble. So Itachi bit his tongue, stiffly kissed the Madame's hand and smiled. He'd talk to Sakura another time.

Madam Vendarano was currently introducing her daughters to the two Hyuuga men. Ino was looking positively pleased while Karin looked simply content. "Lord Hyuuga young Mister Hyuuga these are my two daughters. Karin who is currently nineteen," Said girl just scowled, her mother didn't need to go telling people who old she was. Especially to the son of a Lord who was younger than her. Her chances of snagging this one were all but shattered completely. "And this," Madame Vendarano said with a great tone of emphases, "is my lovely second daughter Ino, she is currently seventeen, soon to be eighteen. Just the ripe age for marriage don't you agree?" She let out a soft laugh of airiness.

Lord Hyuuga looked Ino over with a stern eye and held back a bit of a snort at the girl's appearance. He disapproved of her choice in clothes and already had a feeling he would not like the girl, but he was a man of manners. So he bit his tongue and forced a smile. "She looks lovely. Don't you agree Neji?"

Neji looked Ino over and narrowed his eyes slightly at her looks as well, but one glance at the look his father was giving his Neji smiled. "Of course, Father." He looked like he wanted to be sick.

Lord Uchiha was a man full of pride and self-respect, but he too was a man of manners. To outwardly tell someone that he disapproved of them was unacceptable. When Madame Vendarano introduced Ino he smiled a tight smile and gave a stiff nod. He had a slightly less tight smile towards Karin. She seemed, to him, a little more respectable as she didn't dress desperately. "Good to meet you. I've hear nothing, but praise from your mother about the two of you." Lord Uchiha's face was unemotional as she said this, but he did a smirk of self-satisfaction as she turned to introduce his own sons. "This is my first son Itachi, he is twenty-three." Itachi gave both girls a curt bow, "And this is my second son Sasuke, he just turned eighteen." Sasuke gave a slight not off the head until his brother nudged him in the back and he bowed.

"It's a pleasure to have you here my Lords. Please do come in. Our maid will fetch us some refreshments until it is time for supper. I hope you do not mind?" Madam Vendarano said sweetly. The two Lords shook their heads. "Wonderful, lets head out to the garden. It is most beautiful this time of year." Ino was a high raspy noise, but was silenced when the Madam sent her a stern glare. "You," She said as the Madam pointed towards Sakura, "Bring us some tea and such to the garden. Don't dally. Go." quickly Sakura fled into the house to make some tea. "My Lords if you would follow me."

As the Madam lead them around the back towards the garden, Sakura was inside making some Earl Grey tea and quickly as she could. As the water heated up she ran towards the cabinets and grabbed some biscuits, jam, and a few sandwiches, that she made earlier just in case. After taking the kettle off the stove and putting the tea bags Sakura put everything on the cart about brought it outside. In in garden everyone was sitting at a few tables by a huge cherry blossom tree.

"There you are. You took too much time." The Madam said sternly with a slight scowl on her face.

"Sorry Madam." Sakura replied quickly as she set the cups out and poured some tea in each.

Itachi picked up the cup and sniffed it slightly before taking a sip. "This is very good. Is it perhaps, Earl Grey?" Sakura nodded. "It is my favourite as well as my father's and brother's. Am I right Father?"

"You are correct. How did you know?" Lord Uchiha asked looking towards Sakura.

"Um..." Sakura was now slightly panicking. She remembered Itachi telling her when she was shopping for a tea. She must have unknowingly made that tea today. Though, if she told the Lords that nothing good would come from it. Sakura's eyes swept over the Madam who looked mad, Ino who was doing nothing but staring at Sasuke-sama and Neji-sama. Then Karin was silently sipping her tea. Then an idea hit her and she inwardly smiled. "Miss. Karin told me." Everyone froze for a moment. "She heard from Monsieur Larice that Lord Uchiha preferred Earl Grey tea so she suggested me to use it; as a way to welcome you and make you more at home."

Everyone at this moment turned to look at Karin, except Itachi who seemed to have lost himself in thought. "Is this true Karin?" The Madam asked, slight sceptically.

Karin looked towards Sakura to glare, but saw Sakura wink in return and understood what she was trying to do. Karin smiled; she'd thank the girl later. "Yes it is. Monsieur Larice, I mean Deidara," Itachi snapped his head up and stared at Karin, "He prefers to be called by his first name. Well, he is quite up to date with all the news, even little details. So when I heard that Lord Uchiha and his sons would be visiting I remembered that Deidara said they preferred Earl Gray. So I told Sakura here to make it."

It was silent for a moment before Lord Uchiha smirked and let out a small laugh. "I complement you on your fine memory. It is usual to find a young girl like yourself who is able to think of others and remember such small details themselves. Don't you agree Itachi, Sasuke?" Itachi, gave a nod, but still seemed a little distracted and Sasuke said a simple 'yes' before drinking more tea. Karin blushed. "You have a fine daughter here Madam Vendarano. Don't let her go to waste."

"Of course, Karin is wiser beyond her age. To think she is already nineteen." Karin twitched; her mother had to mention he age again. "Now what do we have as sides?" Sakura placed some cookies, biscuits, and small finger sandwiches on the table and left.

The rest of the time in the garden went quite well noting but some small talk about the weather, the village, and simple things as well. After some time the sun began to lower itself in the sky and it was not time for dinner. The Madam led the gust into the dining hall where the table was set the families' best fine china. The walls were a gallant red colour and the floor was of a deep oak wood. The china was a shining white with a painting of a different flower on each of them. Everyone settled down to eat, Madam Vendarano at the head with Lord Hyuuga on her left and Lord Uchiha on her right. Their respecting sons next to them. Karin sat next to Neji and Ino sat rather closely next to Sasuke. Imminently Sakura came out with a cart and the dinner placed upon it. Carefully Sakura placed a blow of steaming stew in front of each person.

"This looks delicious. May I ask what it is exactly?" Lord Hyuuga asked Sakura. Madam Vendarano shot Sakura quick glare that clearly said 'don't say anything stupid.' Sakura laughed nervously before answering.

"It's a stew made with pork, various vegetables and some potatoes." Sakura then placed a bowl of salad on the table in the middle. She took a small bow and walk back into the kitchen.

"Such a polite girl she is." Lord Hyuuga said, "What is her name?"

Madam Vendarano was inwardly fuming. This dinner was noting as she planned it to be. The Lords were supposed to be talking of Ino, not that wretched girl. Though she reminded herself that the night was still young and she had plenty of time to fix this little problem. "Her name is Sakura." The Madam placed a false smile of her face as she spoke. "Though we are not sure what her last name is. We found her out in the country on day. She seemed starved and had severed memory loss. All she could remember was a few things such as her name, age, and birthday." She took a small spoonful of her stew. If she ate too much that would be un-lady-like, that and she could tell that the stew was nothing but unneeded carbs. "It seemed like her pervious master was quite unkind to everyone. He had been murdered by a civilian who wished revenge then burned down the house. She seemed to just manage to escape. I took pity upon her and brought her here to serve us."

"How unfortunate," Lord Uchiha said sadly. "Such a horrible thing to do to a young girl such as her she looks barely over sixteen."

"She is eighteen." Itachi automatically corrected then inwardly punched himself as everyone turned to stare at him.

"How do you know son?"

Itachi hesitated for a moment before smiling. "It's only an observation. I think she looks about Sasuke's age; even though she is rather small."

"Ah I see," Lord Uchiha started, "You were always good a noticing small details like that. I will not doubt your observation skills." Then Lord Uchiha started a conversation with the Madam about something trivial.

Itachi let out a small sigh of relief. That had been a close call, too close for him. A small shiver ran down Itachi's spin and he had to suppress a shiver. Turning his right and saw cold onyx eyes staring straight at him. It seems that Sasuke had seen through his whit lie. Itachi stared right back at his little brother with eyes that clearly said 'not now'. Sasuke gave a small snort and turned back to his stew. After everyone was done eating their stew Sakura came back out and took the bowls and put the main meal on their plates. Itachi smiled a bit as he recognized some of the foods Sakura bought in the market. There was some roast, squash, vegetables, potatoes, and some of the bread rolls that Sakura bought at the bakery. The diner continued splendidly as conversations was made all around the table. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, well, almost everyone.

Ino was staring at her plate of food with a look of upmost distain. The roast seemed to mock her as she looked at it, the potatoes gloated in her face, and the bread roll seemed to be laughing at her. _I swear, that stew of carbs and salt was bad enough now this plate of pure fat and cholesterol! I swear that bitch will pay. _When Ino noticed her mother shoot her a look Ino quickly put a few vegetables on her mouth and listened in on Karin's conversation. For nearly the entire dinner Karin had been talking with the young Hyuuga boy and frank fully it was pissing Ino off completely. When she attempted to start a conversation with Sasuke it was a pointless effort. He either answered with one word or not at all. Ino hated being ignored, but he was a very handsome boy. A little more effort into this one may just pay off later on.

"So Sasuke," Ino said in a sugary voice. Sasuke's eyes flickered towards Ino, indicating that she grabbed his attention, though he continued eating. "What do you think of Suna? Have you been here before or is this your first time."

Sasuke snorted, he didn't get why she didn't understand that he didn't want to talk to her. She looked like nothing special at all and he tried to continue eating again and brush he questions off. The key word was tried. Sasuke had to hold his breath and try with all his might not to cry out loud in pain. After a quick moment and he was calm Sasuke shot a fierce glare at his older brother who was acting as if nothing happened. Itachi had taken it liberty upon himself to stomp on Sasuke's foot with all his might while still looking inconspicuous. To say the least it hurt a lot. Sighing Sasuke swallowed the food in his mouth and decided that he'd entertain the annoying girl with small talk. He'd rather not have to deal with Itachi stomping on his foot again.

"I've been here a few times before, mainly during Konoha's winters. I do not like coming here during the summer though. It's too hot, humid, and dry."

"I know it's dreadful. You should see what it does to my hair over the summer. It's horrible." Ino complained loudly. "So, what's Konoha like? I can imagine it's beautiful."

"It's is rather nice; better than all the dry weather here." Itachi stepped on Sasuke's foot again. "Though Suna does have rather nice winters; no snow, but the right amount of Sun. In Konoha it rarely snows, but its winters are brutally chilled. During the spring the Forest of Death is a rather breath taking sight to see, forgetting its name."

Karin, who at this point had stopped conversing with Neji, quirked an eyebrow, "Why is it called the Forest of Death?"

Neji wiped his mouth with a napkin and caught slightly getting the two girls attention. "It's a thick forest full of huge trees and dangerous animals. It's rumoured to have monsters as well, but those are just rumours. It has been confirmed that several rare species of bears, deer, and snakes live there as well had many rare and unidentified plants. Therefore it's a prime target for hunters, poachers and scientists. That's how its name first started. Every person who went in never came back out. It's even said that late at night you can hear screams coming from it."

The room was silent and the tension in the air seemed to be heavily thick. No one moved or made a sound at all. The only thing that could be heard was the small bustling noise from the kitchen where Sakura seemed to be working. After several minutes the science was broken when Lord Hyuuga let out a small laugh.

"Now, now Neji, don't go scaring the poor girls. All that nonsense is nothing, but lies that people say to get travellers all scared." Lord Uchiha gave a stiff snort and Lord Hyuuga glared swiftly at him. "Something you would like to add?"

"No nothing at all, but I believe that there is truth in those old stories. Why our elders always said that behind every tall tale is some bit of truth."

"I see what you mean Lord Uchiha, but I still beg to differ. Those stories of the supposed Forest of Death are nothing but lies."

"If you say so, Hyuuga"

Before any more talk to commence and lead to a full fledge argument Sakura came back into the room with cart again this time with a sweet smelling dessert on it. Sakura removed the empty plates off the table then placed a silver tray with a lid in the middle. She set another smaller flower decorated plate in front of each person with a small fork. "Coffee?" she ask softly to the two Lords and Madam Vendarano. The three nodded and she poured some into three mugs. She placed two sugar cubes and milk in Lord Hyuuga's mug; just milk in the Madam's mug, and left Lord Uchiha's plain black. The two lords at this point raised a refined eyebrow at her.

"How could you tell I liked my coffee black?" Lord Uchiha asked briskly.

"And mine rather sweet." Lord Hyuuga added as well as he took a sip of his coffee.

Sakura blushed and flinched at he noticed the pointed glare the Madam was giving her. Though she knew she was typically not allowed to speak to them; if she ignored them instead the Madam would be furious as she had ignored Lords that the Madam wished to impress. "Well, when you were out in the garden I noticed that you Lord Uchiha-sama ate the more bitter cookies I had set out while Lord Hyuuga-sama ate more of the sweeter ones. I thought that you would have preferred those tastes as well to your coffee."

Lord Uchiha took a long sip form his mug and smirked. "This is very good. You are quite an observant girl. Have you been educated at all?"

Sakura flushed and the Madam cut in. "Nothing more than the simple basics. Though I am wondering what '-sama' means."

"It's a prefix added to the end of a name. It is used in means of high respect and typically added for royalty of some sort." Karin said quickly, "She must have remembered it from earlier when I was reviewing my books on Japan. The Hyuugas and the Uchihas originally come from an old blood line in Japan and I thought that it would be appropriate to learn a bit about their cultures before they arrived." Karin sent a slightly smug look at Ino as the two lords looked at her in slight awe. Karin was also smiling on the inside as well. She had saved Sakura from what could have been a tremendous disaster. It seemed only fair; Sakura had gotten Karin some positive points with the Uchiha's earlier with the tea incident. Though, she was still wondering how Sakura knew that they preferred Earl Grey, she'd have to look into that later on.

"May, such a smart girl!" Lord Hyuuga said with a small chuckle, "I like her already; you must be very proud of her Madam."

"Yes, of cores." Madam Vendarano said in a small voice. She was rather surprised that Karin was more knowledgeable that she first realized. Even so she was aggravated at her eldest daughter. Because of her that Lords main focus on Ino was being taken away. Not only that, but they seemed to be interested in that lousy girl. She had no right to mess in the business of other far more superior to herself. The Madam would have to see that she learned that.

On the other side of the table Ino practically had steam pouring out of her ears. How dare Karin upstage her like that! Mother had invited them over so she could wed one of them. Not for her sister to hog all the lime light like she was doing. No, Ino needed to get the attention back onto her. The evening was ending soon and she needed to attract their attention before it was too late.

Sensing the uneasiness in the air Itachi did a carefully disused caught and brought the people back into their senses. "May I ask exactly what is under that cover? Its smell is quite illuminating."

Sakura jumped at the sound of Itachi's voice, but none the less smiled back and nodded. Sakura removed the cover on the tray to revile a pumpkin pie with cream on top. "I made it because I saw it at the market. It was looked too tempting to turn away so I bought it." Itachi smiled a bit; _So__ that was why she was staring at the pumpkin for so long._ Unfortunately Itachi's smiled didn't go unnoticed by Sasuke, _Why is he smiling so much?_ Carefully Sakura cut a piece for everyone at the table them backed out of the room again.

Taking a generous bit of the pie Itachi smiled. "This is quite good." He mumbled to himself quietly. Sasuke had head and raised an eyebrow in question. _Something strange is defiantly going on here. Itachi hates pumpkins pie and he's not one to over act something like this. He knows something I don't. _Sasuke took a bite of the pie and his eyes lit up, _Or maybe, just maybe, it's this pie._ Sasuke was carefully in not letting how much he likes the pie show on his face as he continued to eat it.

Meanwhile the three Vendaranos were scowling at the pie in front of them. It was pure sugar; nothing good came out of eating just plain sugar. The Madam carefully took a few bites before deciding to stop eating. She could practically feel the fat growing on her body. Karin had decided to take a plunge and eat the pie; she felt no regret as she continued to eat it. Sugar or not, it was a good pie. Ino had decided to leave the pie alone and just pushed it away from herself.

Neji Hyuuga, the only son of Lord Hazashi Hyuuga, was quietly eating his pie though his brain was working at the speed of light at he analyzed all that had happened so far. He was typically a quite boy, even though he talk more that the youngest Uchiha boy, and was very good and gathering and analyzing data and information. So far he mainly had learned a lot of useless things. Ino hated just about all the season in Suna, apparently loved to shop, and she gossiped more than Princess Hinata and her Lady-in-Waiting Ten-Ten. Karin seemed more quiet and reserved; though he could tell that she wanted to lash out her mother and sister a few times during conversation. Between the two girls he preferred Karin, only because she wasn't noisy like Ino. That and she dressed appropriately for a lady, even it was a little over the top. The Madam, personally, he disliked with a great passion. All she did when speaking to him was about Ino. It seemed that she hoped that he would chose to wed Ino and bring their family even greater fortune. He'd sooner marry his privet butler Lee than even think about marrying Ino. And the way she only talked about Ino was irritating as well. Typically it was the eldest that was the favourite among multiple siblings, though here it seemed like Ino won over Karin for her mother's main attention. Neji then swept his eyes over to the door leading into the kitchen. That maid, Sakura was just plainly weird. She was polite and kind, soft spoken and gentle. But Neji noticed that in the garden when she mentioned the Earl Grey tea her face froze for a moment before she answered and Karin seemed momentarily angry and then shocked before she confirmed Sakura's claim. Then there was Sakura's knowledge of cooking, none of the Vendaranos seemed capable at cooking in any way so who had taught her? The story that the Madam had told them didn't seem to add up with the behaviour of the pink haired girl. _Then there's Uchiha Itachi-san._ The man had been strange all night. He spaced out when that man that Karin mentioned in the garden and when he made claims about Sakura's age. Even though it wasn't prominent or anything Neji could defiantly tell that the two knew each other already before this night. Something defiantly weird was going on and he was going to figure it out.

After everyone was finished the Madam suggested that they all moved to the living room for some relaxation before the Lords left. The living room was of a dusky-blue colour with white furniture and cherry wood floors. A large elaborately designed rug lay across the floor and a fireplace was sitting in the middle of the far wall. Lord Uchiha sat on a couch near with fire with a son of either side of him. Lord Uchiha sat in an arm chair near the door and Neji sat on the other couch across from the Uchihas with Ino next to him and Karin next to her. Madam Vendarano sat in another arm chair next to Lord Hyuuga.

"Sakura! Come here." The Madam called out. Immediately the pink haired girl appeared in front of the strict woman. "Start the fire, this year the cold of winter is approaching sooner than ever and I do not wish to freeze to death. Hurry now."

"Yes Ma'am." Quickly Sakura got some fire wood from a bucket next to it and placed it in the fireplace. As she continued trying to start the fire Sasuke decided to make conversation.

"Sakura, was it?" Sakura jumped at being called by someone other than the Madam. She quickly nodded started stuffing some old newspaper in between the logs. "How old are you?"

"I turned eighteen in March."

Lord Uchiha seemed slightly shocked, "You're older than Sasuke. He turned eighteen in July." He then turned towards Itachi, "It seemed that you were correct as always. She is Sasuke's age; she older actually." He then left out a laugh and Sasuke decided not to talk anymore. To find out a girl was older than you wasn't very boastful to an ego.

A sudden _whoosh_ sounded though the room as the logs in the fireplace caught a flame and roared to life. "There. The room should become warm in no time now." Sakura stood and dusted herself off. "If you will please excuse me I have to finish in the kitchen." With a deep bow Sakura scurried out of the room and the soft sounds of clanking pots and pans could be heard.

"So, Lord Uchiha," Madam Vendarano started, "How are things running in Konoha? Is the King well? Last I heard he had become extremely ill."

"Ah yes, King Sarutobi. He becoming rather old, he is still running the country, but even though I have great belief and trust in his abilities I do not think he will live much longer if he continues to run the Kingdom." Lord Uchiha bowed his head letting out a deep sigh

"He must have a relative that can take his place on the throne doesn't he?" Karin asked hesitantly, "How would your Kingdom prosper if there is no Heir?"

"He has only two living relatives his son Prince Asuma and his grandson Prince Konohamaru." Lord Hyuuga added in, "Unfortunately Prince Asuma has been sent to battle with the Kingdom of Kumo and has yet to return. The last news we head of him was a two months ago and it was not the best news. And Prince Konohamaru is far too young to rule the Kingdom yet. The elders have been holding meetings constantly to figure out this problem before a major problem happens."

"What is Suna doing about their similar situation?" Questioned Itachi, "Suna's past King just died recently you're your kingdom is currently without a King."

"Well," Ino started in a sly voice, "I heard a rumour that there making one of the Princes King."

"Of course they are they are the heirs to the throne. It would only be right for one of them to become King. It's simple logic any imbecile can figure that out." Karin snapped at Ino as she smiled with pride as the two Lords smirked and their sons stifled a small laugh. Meanwhile Ino and her mother were silently fuming, proof showing more on Ino than her mother.

Ino quickly recovered and glared at her sister. "Well did _you _figure out which Prince they're thinking of making King?"

"Of course it's Prince Kankuro. He is the eldest."

"Wrong, I guess you're not as smart as you thought you were dear sister." Karin gave Ino a sharp glare. "They're going to make Prince Gaara King."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, "Prince Gaara? Is he not only eighteen?"

"He is," Neji said then shot a smug look at Sasuke, "I believe he is also older than you." Sasuke glared at Neji as the young white eyes teen laughed.

"Yes, well I heard that Prince Kankuro is marrying the heir to the Sound Kingdom and Princess Temari is marrying a Noble's son in Konoha actually."

"Ah yes,

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**And that is where I left off. Nothing was written past that point no matter how hard I tried. I hope you enjoyed that piece of trash I had written.**

**I will consider rewriting this completely if enough people wish for me to. So please, it you don't want this story to die send me a review telling me that you want a revamped version of this story. Also any constructive criticism is welcomed.**

**Oh, I almost forgot! I will most likely be changing my screen name. Not sure yet, depends on a few factors I will not name just yet. Thank you for your tolerance of my ineffectiveness to update and such. I hope to hear from all of you!**


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